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| Author: Joan Bolker
Publisher: Holt Paperbacks
Category: Book
List Price: $16.95
Buy New: $11.53
You Save: $5.42 (32%)
Rating:  63 reviews
Sales Rank: 5770
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1st
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 184
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 8 x 5.5 x 0.6
ISBN: 080504891X
Dewey Decimal Number: 808.066378
EAN: 9780805048919
Publication Date: August 15, 1998
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Customer Reviews:
 Eh--- not so much April 10, 2006
15 out of 33 found this review helpful
I am a doctoral candidate and basically this book is not telling me how to write my dissertation and complete it giving 15 minutes a day to the writing (let alone the research) but really how to overcome blocks and start writing. Haven't we all been there, done that already? To me, this book didn't offer anything I hadn't already read, figured out or been taught. Perhaps it would be a good book for procrastinators, but not for me.
A recipe for Torture--it's your funeral October 27, 2004
14 out of 34 found this review helpful
Well, you might think you have to fit in writing your dissertation with all your other obligations as a poor graduate student or a back-to-school learner so that you must mete out your wisdom in soundbites that rack up a complete dissertation, but if you are in those categories, I do not recommend this book. Take it from someone who wrote a dissertation and had it approved: since the whole damn process is so exasperating the BEST way to write it is devote every spare moment of your life working, revising, researching, meeting with advisors, etc. The faster you do it, the quicker you will feel liberated from the experience of being embroiled in it. Just find some PROFOUND reason for having to complete it (even if you have to make up the reason--and remember Nietzche's dictum: he who has a why to live can exist with any how) and keep plugging away, drink coffee, become the hero of your own life (a la Joseph Campbell). But please, don't look for ways to make the process more congenial: there ain't no such way.
How do you eat an elephant? April 21, 2005
12 out of 12 found this review helpful
There is an old joke "How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time". This book is the how to eat the elephant. It breaks down the steps and the process, which can seem daunting and overwhelming at times.
If you take away nothing else, take away the concept of doing a little bit every day. You will complete whatever degree to are pursuing.
Useful and logical.... August 4, 2005
12 out of 14 found this review helpful
This book is very useful to a struggling student (like myself), yet it doesnt actually say anything that surprising. It basically says...sit down, shut up, and WRITE! It does talk about using positive reinforcement though, which might be useful to some. When reading the part about "do some work then reward yourself with a phone call, or chocolate bar" I couldnt help but think "how about I don't write and just eat a chocolate anyway?" I suppose it is working on the assumption that you have some self control and some motivation to achieve, or else you wouldnt be doing a PhD in the first place. With this in consideration, I do think it is a useful book, and even just reading it is somewhat motivating. I am still trying to develop a writing addiction though...Ill let you know when I start feeling withdrawal symptoms on my days off! I'd buy it again, coz there is nothing to lose, and a PhD is too important to risk.
Make a Mess then Clean It Up June 3, 2007
12 out of 12 found this review helpful
For academic reasons I've been reading a fair number of these little writing guides lately. Most of them turn out to be useless you-can-do-it cheerleading or weak opinionating with little relevance beyond the author's personal experience. This guide by Bolker rises above the pack because it's based not just on her own personal writing but also on her extensive experience in counseling graduate students from all walks of life. Granted, the title of this book is all wrong, which Bolker even admits in her introduction. Writing a dissertation in just fifteen minutes a day is far from realistic, and Bolker advises that you work on it at least fifteen minutes a day. One truly unique aspect of Bolker's counseling for graduate school writers is her advice on how to beat writer's block. In her system, write anything at all, no matter how sloppy, just to stay in the game - and then clean it up later. Bolker also has a unique take on feeding your writing habit as if it were an addiction, with the threat of withdrawal symptoms that should be avoided. The only problem with this book is that Bolker extends her advice on the writing process into larger graduate school matters - topics that are useful, but too important and varied for the quick treatment they receive here. Stick with Bolker's knowledge of the writing regimen. [~doomsdayer520~]
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